Has Apple begun clearing iPhone 3G inventory? — Staffers at Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City confirm that as of Thursday at 8 a.m., customers are now permitted to buy unlimited quantities of iPhones without an AT&T contract — the very thing the company was working …

Amazon Web Services: No Open Cloud Manifesto for us — Update: Amazon will join Microsoft as two big cloud computing players not signing on to the Open Cloud Manifesto. — The manifesto, which has raised a ruckus following a Microsoft blog post, is set to be released Monday with IBM as the ringleader.

Could Disney Join Hulu? Sources Say Talks Are Serious — Updated: The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company could wind up with an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for adding ABC programming to the NBC Universal-News Corp (NYSE: NWS) joint venture, a source familiar with the situation tells paidContent.

Flickr Founder Launches New Startup, Hunch — Hunch, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake's new startup, is launching in beta today. — Update: Caterina has posted about Hunch on her blog. Here's how she describes it. — What is Hunch? — Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly.

JavaScript to get 3x speed boost in iPhone OS 3.0 — Regardless of whatever new hardware Apple might introduce this summer, existing iPhone users will see an average 300 percent speed increase in JavaScript performance in Mobile Safari. The increased speed will be helpful for iPhone-specifc web apps …

Apple developing ‘stealth’ biometric security for iPhone — Apple has developed a new technique that would hide a biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac and let owners lock down their systems with fingerprints or even facial recognition — all without ever having to break from their usual routine.

AT&T offering refurbished BlackBerry Bold for free — In the market for a new AT&T smartphone? Don't care if it's refurbished? The BlackBerry Bold is about as good as it gets from AT&T right now, and those of you who haven't pulled the trigger yet are in for a treat. How does free sound?

Conficker: Doomsday, or the World's Longest Rickroll? — When it comes to criminal hackers, establishing motive is usually a no-brainer: In a majority of cases, computer worms and viruses are little more than tools that bad guys use to make money. But every so often, a prolific …

When every student has a laptop, why run computer labs? — Only four freshmen showed up at the University of Virginia in 2007 without a computer of their own, and the school has decided that it's no longer worth the expense of running campus computer labs. — What's the point of running …

8 Hours a Day Spent on Screens, Study Finds — IN a world with grocery store television screens, digitally delivered movie libraries and cellphone video clips, the average American is exposed to 61 minutes of TV ads and promotions a day. — Some people may think that amount seems excessive.

Facebook, Google, and the data design disaster — These days, in this world of IKEA and Target and “Project Runway,” we like to think we know about design. We also like to think that the biggest names in Silicon Valley know what they're doing design-wise.

Meizu M8 unboxing and hands-on! — Yes, folks — things are about to get really real. We have managed, through a series of delicate negotiations, to get our hands on an honest-to-goodness Meizu M8 — heretofore the stuff of pure legend. At first glance, the build quality of the phone …

Youth Bloggers Network Acquired By Teens In Tech — Teens In Tech, a blogging network founded by 16 year old Daniel Brusilovsky, has acquired the Youth Bloggers Network (YBN). YBN consists of a network of over 100 young bloggers, and was founded by Patrick DeVivo, who is also a young entrepreneur.

‘Jaunty Jackalope’ Ubuntu springs into beta — The next version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, code-named Jaunty Jackalope, went into beta phase late Thursday. — Ubuntu 9.04, as it is more properly known, includes a range of enhancements over its predecessor, Intrepid Ibex, or Ubuntu 8.10.

Tying the Hyperlocal Knot — The Knot is launching 75 new localized sites in the hopes of reaching brides-to-be from Tampa to Tucson. — The Knot — David Liu, CEO of the wedding Web site, said the idea is to provide the “ingredients” that people planning weddings seek out.

Hammerhead Systems goes belly up — Startups become shut-downs with regularity in Silicon Valley, usually because the technology or business execution fall short. But the recent demise of the networking startup Hammerhead Systems, some observers say, is a glaring exception to the Darwinian rule.

IBM layoffs incite backlash — Business decision spurs negative sentiment toward Big Blue — IBM's news that it will shed some 5,000 North American jobs and potentially send more positions overseas has stirred up some bad sentiment toward Big Blue as the economy continues to languish.

Intel to refresh laptop chips Monday — Intel will refresh its lineup of chips for ultraportable laptops on Monday. — The new dual-core processors—targeted at Apple MacBook Air-class laptops—include the 2.53GHz SP9600 priced at $316 with 6MB of cache memory and a thermal envelope rating …